KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah government is urged to look for alternatives in building roads that don't involve the biodiversity-rich Tawai Forest Reserve in the central Telupid district.
Pertubuhan Pemuliharaan Biodiversiti Seratu Aatai Sabah (Seratu Aatai) director, Dr Nurzhafarina Othman, said the forest was part of the Heart of Borneo and it has special species like Bornean peacock-pheasant.
She said the Humans Habitats Highways (3H) Coalition, of which Seratu Atai is part of, had proposed alternative routes for the projects to the government.
"The government had said that the redesigning and new alignment would be more expensive.
"If that is not possible, then the best solution is to build elevated roads so that animals still can use them, and we won't lose habitat due to development.
"We still have time to do so. Seratu Atai and 3H coalition will keep on convincing the government and hopefully, they will consider this just as the previous government had put on hold the second Sukau bridge project," she said, adding that it was also to prevent exacerbation of human-wildlife conflict.
Nurzhafarina was speaking to reporters after the World Elephant's Day celebration and the launch of the Education corner of Kinabatangan Biodiversity centre at TAME centre here.
As of this year, she said the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN Red List) reported that the elephant population in Sabah is between 1,200 and 1,500.
Meanwhile, she said there has been much improvement in elephant conservation efforts in Sabah whereby oil palm stakeholders are more open towards conservation efforts, including creating elephant corridors; the community becomes honorary wildlife wardens who learn how to manage elephants by understanding their behaviours.
Earlier, Tanjung Aru assemblyman Datuk Junz Wong launched the Kinabatangan Endangered Species Educational Corner.
The corner is a joint effort between Seratu Aatai, Sabah Pangolin Awareness Association and Explore Gaia Enterprise to educate and promote awareness on three endangered Lower Kinabatangan species which are the Bornean Elephant, the Sunda Pangolin and the helmeted hornbill.